Caps Lock as a command key and the tyranny of the keyboard

In a previous post, I mentioned how I turned off the Caps Lock key on my keyboard. However is is pretty wasteful to have this large, easily accessible button just sitting there not doing anything. So I remapped it letting me easily enter high-ASCII characters.

The tyranny of the keyboard is that the existing key caps pose a significant barrier to entering proper typographic characters. Because of this, users type a lowercase x instead of the true multiplication sign ×, or three period rather than an ellipsis …, or a vertical bar rather than the more elegant middle dot ·

Using my master AutoHotKey script, I've remapped the keys like this:

CapsLock & -::Send {–}
CapsLock & =::Send {—}
CapsLock & [::Send {‹}
CapsLock & ]::Send {›}
CapsLock & ,::Send {…}
CapsLock & .::Send {·}
CapsLock & x::Send {×}
CapsLock & 4::Send {¢}
CapsLock & 8::Send {•}

Granted, you'll have to learn which keys generate which characters, but I've tried to use mnemonics to help (the period key produces a middle dot, the asterisk a bullet). And once you learn these characters and learn how to use them, your writing will look professional and stand out from the rest of the crowd—like this usage of an em dash.

So next time you want to add your 2¢ to gain a 3–4× improvement in revenue to £1.4 million, consider my script. Oh and if you want the complete code, you have to ask me in the comments. :-)